Influenza infection represents a major socio-economic burden worldwide. Novel delivery methods can render influenza vaccination easier and more acceptable by the public, and importantly confer protection equal or superior to that induced by conventional systemic administration. An attractive target for vaccine delivery is the skin. Recent studies have… (More)

Cutaneous vaccination with microneedle patches offers several advantages over more frequently used approaches for vaccine delivery, including improved protective immunity. However, the involvement of specific APC subsets and their contribution to the induction of immunity following cutaneous vaccine delivery is not well understood. A better understanding of… (More)

Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of vaccine delivery to the skin by vaccine-coated microneedles; however there is little information on the effects of adjuvants using this approach for vaccination. Here we investigate the use of TLR ligands as adjuvants with skin-based delivery of influenza subunit vaccine. BALB/c mice received 1 µg of… (More)

Prevention of seasonal influenza epidemics and pandemics relies on widespread vaccination coverage to induce protective immunity. In addition to a good antigenic match with the circulating viruses, the effectiveness of individual strains represented in the trivalent vaccines depends on their immunogenicity. In this study, we evaluated the immunogenicity of… (More)

Systemic use of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFRIs) has been shown to alter MHC expression and that of several chemokines, and to enhance immune cell recruitment into human skin. We hypothesized that EGFRIs may have value as cutaneous immune response modifiers, and determined the effects of topical application of an irreversible EGFRI on a… (More)